Skip to main content

Beesley's Point Bridge in Great Egg Harbor, New Jersey

Image
By
For those who take the Garden State Parkway down to Cape May, you may notice a bridge close by as you cross the Great Egg Harbor as you cross out of Atlantic County. That is the Beesley's Point Bridge, which connects Somers Point with Cape May County on US 9. Currently, the bridge has been closed down to vehicles due to unsafe traffic with said traffic routed on the nearby Garden State Parkway, but there are some quirks that makes this crossing a treasure. On a mild, yet windy February weekend in 2005, I had the unique opportunity of taking a walk down Beesley's Point Bridge and discovered some of the quirks of this private tolled crossing.

US 9 guide sign mentioning the weight limit of the bridge. Judging by what I saw from the bridge, that may be pushing it.

Looking southbound on the bridge. There are also a number of ads that dot the landscape of the bridge. I wonder how much one of the ads costs.

A jersey barrier serves as a blockade to most traffic at the south end of the bridge.

More space for advertisements.

A view looking north into Atlantic County.

Now looking north on the bridge, here's a good view of Great Egg Harbor and Somers Point. You can see some of the despair that the bridge is in. In other spots, you can see gaps in the pavement so deep you are actually looking at the water. I am not sure how effective those ads are on a closed bridge.

The toll booth for the Beesley's Point Bridge is in the middle of the bridge. The car you see is likely owned the bridge tender. Seems that the company that owns the bridge is still employing bridge tenders while the bridge is closed.

The Beesley's Point Bridge is pretty close to the span for the Garden State Parkway. That's Ocean City, NJ, in the distance.

As the Beesley's Point Bridge is a private bridge, the State of New Jersey is not in charge of maintaining it. The changeover is marked here.



A hole in the pavement.

Another hole in the pavement. Hello, water!

There is a power plant nearby along the southern shores of Great Egg Harbor. The curbs for the bridge are made of wood.
Signage listing the toll schedule for the Beesley's Point Bridge. If a passenger car were to take the nearby Garden State Parkway, only a 35 cent toll would be levied.

A old sign photo taken by Alex Nitzman of AARoads, taken in June 1997.
 As of the time of this blog post (August 16, 2016), the bridge is undergoing demolition. I had another chance to visit the Beesleys Point Bridge in December 2010. I don't believe that the bridge had ever reopened after my 2005 visit. Here are a few photos from that visit.



Labels:
Location: 9 Harbor Rd, Marmora, NJ 08223, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Deer Isle Bridge in Maine

By
As graceful a bridge that I ever set my eyes upon, the Deer Isle Bridge (officially known as the Deer Isle-Sedgwick Bridge) surprisingly caught my eye as I was driving around coastal Maine one Saturday afternoon. About 35 miles south of Bangor, Maine , the Deer Isle Bridge connects the Blue Hill Peninsula of Downeast Maine with Little Deer Isle over the Eggemoggin Reach on ME 15 between the towns of Sedgwick and Deer Isle . It should be noted that Little Deer Isle is connected to Deer Isle by way of a boulder lined causeway, and there is a storied regatta that takes place on the Eggemoggin Reach each summer. But the Deer Isle Bridge holds many stories, not just for the vacationers who spend part of their summer on Deer Isle or in nearby Stonington , but for the residents throughout the years and the folks who have had a hand bringing this vital link to life.   The Deer Isle Bridge was designed by David Steinman and built by the Phoenix Bridge Company of Phoenixville,
Post a Comment
Read more

Former US Route 99 through Athlone and the last Wheeler Ridge-Sacramento corridor expressway

By
Athlone was a siding of the Southern Pacific Railroad located in Merced County on the alignment of what was US Route 99 between the cities of Chowchilla and Merced.  The Athlone corridor of US Route 99 was one of the first in San Joaquin Valley to fully upgraded to four lane expressway standards.  The Athlone expressway corridor was inherited by California State Route 99 when US Route 99 was truncated to Ashland, Oregon during June 1965.  The four-lane expressway through Athlone was the last segment of what had been US Route 99 in the Wheeler Ridge-Sacramento corridor to be bypassed by a freeway.  The Athlone expressway corridor was bypassed by the modern California State Route 99 freeway in 2016.  Despite being put on a road diet and narrowed what was the Athlone expressway corridor still displays evidence of being part of US Route 99.   Above the blog cover photo displays the Athlone expressway corridor of US Route 99 south of Merced as depicted in the July 1939 California Highways &
Post a Comment
Read more

California State Route 38

By
California State Route 38 is a fifty-nine-mile State Highway located entirety in San Bernardino County and a component of the Rim of the World Highway.  California State Route 38 begins at California State Route 18 at Bear Valley Dam of the San Bernardino Mountains and follows an easterly course on the north shore of Big Bear Lake.  California State Route 38 briefly multiplexes California State Route 18 near Baldwin Lake and branches east towards the 8,443-foot-high Onyx Summit.  From Onyx Summit the routing of California State Route 38 reverses course following a largely westward path through the San Bernardino Mountains towards a terminus at Interstate 10 in Redlands.   Pictured as the blog cover is California State Route 38 at Onyx Summit the day it opened to traffic on August 12th, 1961.   Part 1; the history of California State Route 38 California State Route 38 (CA 38) is generally considered to be the back way through the San Bernardino Mountains to Big Bear Lake of Bear Valley
Post a Comment
Read more